Unwed couple, kids face boot by Black Jack

[donheld]

Olivia Shelltrack finally has her dream home. Her family moved into the five-bedroom, three-bath frame house in Black Jack last month. But now she fears she and her fiance face uprooting their children because of a city ordinance that says her household fails to meet Black Jack's definition of a family.

Shelltrack and Fondray Loving, her boyfriend of 13 years, were denied an occupancy permit because of an ordinance forbidding three or more individuals from living together if they are not related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The couple have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, although Loving is not the biological father of the oldest child.

"I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than that, you can't," she said

The couple appealed the denial of an occupancy permit last week at a hearing before Black Jack's board of adjustment. Shelltrack said board members asked her and Loving personal questions about their relationship, their children and their previous home in Minneapolis, from where they moved, for nearly an hour. Then the board denied the couple's appeal. The case now goes before Black Jack's municipal court.

More...
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/srlinks.nsf/story/EFC197EA40D906FB8625711E007E4B1E?OpenDocument

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/B868F634A07FBD2C8625713A001D459A?OpenDocument

http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/blackjackletter.pdf

[theHandpuppet]

1. Ordinances like this one are being used to exclude gay families

Now these same laws are being used against striaght couples who don't fit the nuclear fundie family mold. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you....

[maine_raptor]

2. Couldn't tell from the story

but in the pictures, it seems that she is white and the kids are black.

You don't suppose that has something to do with it, do you?

[Solon]

3. This reminds me of Ladue's "anti-brothel" law...

Basically forbidding more than 3 women who are unrelated from sharing an apartment or house. Bullshit laws, one and all.